Retirement Starts Today

Since travel is on many soon-to-be retirees' must-do lists I have created this summer travel series with various travel experts. Danielle Desir from the  Thought Card podcast  joins me today to discuss how to travel to any destination on a budget. Recognized by Flight Network as one of the best travel hackers in the world, Danielle has figured out how to travel to bucket-list destinations on a dim...

 Do you have bond funds in your portfolio? Many people understand the way that bonds work, but they may not know how bond funds work. El has written in to ask this question which I will answer in the listener questions segment.  Before we get to that retirement question, we'll take a look at a MarketWatch article titled  Are You in Retirement Hell?  It was such a catchy title that I had to check i...

Are you preparing for a successful retirement? If you are, you'll need to consider more than just your finances because 80% of a successful retirement has nothing to do with money. However, when people focus on retirement planning, money is often the only thing they focus on. In the retirement headlines segment this week, we'll check out an  article from  Financial Advisor Magazine  titled Right W...

Do you have a case of frugality syndrome? Many of us are so used to saving and living frugally that we have a hard time pivoting from the accumulation stage of retirement planning into the distribution stage.  A recent retirement headline from  Advisor Perspectives  titled Overcoming the Frugality Syndrome caught my eye. This article discusses the difficulty that some retirees have in switching fr...

How's this for a headline?  I'm 62, unemployed, living off my savings, and waiting on Social Security — 'Can I go fishing for the next 25 years and forget about work?  It naturally caught my eye since there was fishing in the title! Today we'll check out this  MarketWatch article  and answer the headline's question as well as explore the additional recommendations the article mentions on ways to m...

What do you think about senior living communities? Would you want to move to one? According to a recent  WSJ article , occupancy in senior housing is on the decline despite the fact that baby boomers are aging and more of these communities are springing up all over the country. In the retirement headlines segment, we'll take a look at the reasons for this phenomenon. But before we get to the retir...

Has the Covid pandemic caused you to reevaluate your life and consider early retirement? If so, you are not alone. Now that we are starting to emerge from the pandemic, many Americans have a new 'life is short' mindset. This, coupled with an upswing in investments and home values is leading many affluent Americans in a rush to retire. Check out the retirement headlines segment where we explore a r...

Episode 200! I can't believe I've made it to this landmark episode. Thank you all for joining me on this journey and I hope you'll join me for the next 200. I enjoy looking back and reminiscing on previous episodes, but I don't have to go too far back to find my most recent favorite.  Episode 199  is one of my most recent favorites. In it, I interviewed world-renowned Disney expert, Lou Mongello,...

What is the number one travel goal for people approaching retirement? Disney! People young and old alike love to go to Disney. In my 15 years of retirement planning, I have discovered that a multi-generational trip to Disney is at the top of most people's bucket lists. That is why I have brought the world's foremost expert on Disney travel, Lou Mongello, on to Retirement Starts Today for an interv...

Have you ever thought about your relationship with work? As retirement looms ahead, many people become fearful of the unknown that it brings. A common way to express this fear is to worry about money, but this fear goes beyond money. The real fear that people have about retirement is about how they will spend their time when they no longer have work to fill their days.  In 2017, Paul Millerd chang...

We've all been sitting at home for the past year and now everyone is getting the travel bug. That's why today we're kicking off the Summer Travel Series with an interview with Lee Huffman. Lee hosts a podcast called  We Travel There  and he writes a frugal travel blog at  BaldThoughts.com . I've been curious about the world of travel hacking, so I have plenty of questions for Lee about using trave...

Nobody wants to think about becoming a widow or widower, but unfortunately, if you are married, there is a 50/50 chance that you could. In addition to the crushing grief that comes with losing a spouse, there are many details to take care of in that first year alone. This is why I want to share an article with you from  NextAvenue.org . The article, written by Anna Byrne, outlines 7 steps that you...

Do you consider being rich and being wealthy the same thing? In the book by Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, the author argues that these words mean two different things. In this episode of Retirement Starts Today, we'll explore the difference between rich and wealthy as well as the connotation of the word money.  Outline of This Episode [1:42] A review of the psychology of money [4:30] The...

Are you one of the many that are being held back from early retirement by the exorbitant cost of health insurance? If so, you won't want to miss this episode. This week's retirement headline comes from Carolyn McClanahan at  AdvisorPerspectives.com  and it outlines the enhanced health insurance subsidies that stem from the American Rescue Plan (ARP).  You'll want to stick around for the listener q...

I'm sure you've all heard about the 4% rule for retirement planning. This rule is great for speculating your likelihood of success, but it isn't always the best rule to follow in practice.  Druce Vertes at  AdvisorPerspecives.com  offers a different approach to implementing the original 4% Rule. On this episode of Retirement Starts Today, we'll dive into his technical article which explores the id...

As you prepare yourself for retirement, you probably have a vision of your retired self traveling, spending more time on your hobbies, or with loved ones. Retirement will give you time for all that and more. I read an article recently that describes the 6 phases of retirement. I had never defined it that way before, but this was an interesting way to delineate a natural progression of this time pe...

Have you ever considered going back to school? Early retirement can be a fantastic time to explore new learning opportunities.  In this episode of Retirement Starts Today, we'll take a look at a  Market Watch article  that describes the burgeoning culture of adult learning for those at or near retirement age. We'll continue by exploring many higher education programs across the United States that...

Since 2020 was the year of working from home, you may be wondering how you can deduct your home office expenses from your taxes now that tax time is upon us. For this reason, we explore an article written by Jeffrey Levine at  Kitces.com . Learn the home office deduction rules and discover if they will apply to your situation. Outline of This Episode [2:12] The specifics of the home office deducti...

If 2020 has taught us anything it is that the future is not always certain. This has brought about feelings of insecurity and anxiety in some people. That's why this week, I share an article from  Harvard Business Review  which describes how people can use micro-planning and biomimicry to combat feelings of uncertainty brought on by this post-pandemic world.  After the retirement headlines, I'll a...

Are you signed up for the My Social Security account from the Social Security Administration? In this episode, we'll review a  Kitces.com  article written by Jeffrey Levine about this important resource. We'll review the history of My Social Security, how to sign up for it, how its benefit calculations account for inflation, and how Americans can interpret its information in order to understand th...

Despite the economic downturn, 2020 turned out to be a fantastic year for charitable giving. In this episode, we'll look at how people chose to give and you'll learn about the efficiency of giving through donor-advised funds (DAFs).  In the listener questions segment, you'll learn how to survive a bear market in retirement. We'll investigate the length of the average bear market and see how you ca...

If you've been working from home over the past year you may wonder why you feel even more exhausted than normal. This could be due to Zoom Fatigue. In this episode, we'll explore an article from CNBC that references a Stanford study about this phenomenon. In the listener questions segment, I'll answer questions about RMDs and Roth conversions. Let's get to the bottom of your exhaustion--press play...

You have fraud protection on your bank accounts and your credit cards, but what about your retirement accounts? Today we'll explore an article from the  Wall Street Journal  outlining a case of cyber fraud in a 401K account. We'll also discuss ways for people to safeguard their savings.  In the listener questions segment, I'll answer a question about buying an RV in retirement and we'll wrap up th...

If you have listened to the news at all lately, you probably know what our Retirement Headlines segment will cover. The American Rescue Plan is all any financial news is talking about these days, so in today's episode, we'll explore what you need to know about this recent piece of legislation.  Then in the Listener Questions segment, I answer the question: should having a pension change the way we...

Enrolling in Medicare can be extremely stressful and confusing. There are so many choices to make, there are different rules to follow, and timelines to be met. Additionally, there is so much information out there that it merely adds to the confusion.  On this episode of Retirement Starts Today, I share with you an article written by Joanne Giardini-Russel from Advisor Perspectives entitled,  5 Ti...